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		<title>I was very lucky to find //st. &lt;https://y.st./en/weblog/2015/10-October/18.xhtml&gt;</title>
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			<h1>I was very lucky to find <code>//st.</code></h1>
			<p>Day 00225: Sunday, 2015 October 18</p>
		</header>
<p>
	Sometimes things go horribly wrong, while other times, things go so right that you wonder how you could possibly have so much good luck.
</p>
<p>
	Part of the purpose of my <abbr title="country code top-level domain">ccTLD</abbr> research was to set up a foundation for choosing satellite domains in the future.
	If I know what registries are reasonable, I know what my options are.
	However, part of the purpose of my research was in fact to look behind me and evaluate my decision to make my home here at <code>//y.st.</code>.
	The fact is that my decision was made very hastily and with very little information.
	I did not even realize what information I was missing until after I had my name in hand.
	I did not realize that there was any place I could buy a domain from without having a telephone number.
	I had also just lost all my data, including all my passwords and Web pages, so I had lost not only the pages themselves but the accounts that held my domain names.
	I was desperate to get back a name so I could start anew.
	What I <strong>*did*</strong> know was that some <abbr title="country code top-level domain">ccTLD</abbr> registries were offering <abbr title="Domain Name System">DNS</abbr> servers as part of their domain packages while others were not not.
	I made sure to choose a registry that offered <abbr title="Domain Name System">DNS</abbr> servers as part of its package because I do not have the resources to set up even one <abbr title="Domain Name System">DNS</abbr> server, let alone set up at least two <abbr title="Domain Name System">DNS</abbr> servers on different backbones of the Internet.
	To learn what I learned from the <code>//st.</code> registry, I would need to register a domain with one of only five registries in the world, as these are the only five that do not even ask for a telephone number.
	But the plot thickens.
	Of these, only three allow the registration of single-character labels.
	At the point in time that I registered this domain, I felt a bit strange using the <abbr title="country code top-level domain">ccTLD</abbr> of another country.
	It wasn&apos;t that I thought that it was wrong, only that it felt like I was forsaking my own country to embrace another.
	The only reason I would have left <code>//us.</code> was to register a single-character <abbr title="Second Level Domain">SLD</abbr>, so that makes the <code>//st.</code> registry one of only three.
	Or does it? Of the five registries that do not ask for a telephone number, only one provides <abbr title="Domain Name System">DNS</abbr> services, which as I had said before, was a hard requirement for my registration.
	That&apos;s right - if I was to learn my lesson given the circumstances I was in eight months ago, I <strong>*necessarily must*</strong> have chosen the <code>//st.</code> registry.
	There were and are no substitutions for this.
	Not only am I reassured that the <code>//st.</code> <abbr title="Top Level Domain">TLD</abbr> is a great place to be, I now know that it is the one and only place that I want to make my home.
</p>
<p>
	That said, I&apos;m not against using other <abbr title="Top Level Domain">TLD</abbr>s for my satellite domains.
	Strangely enough, of the five registries, the one that offers <abbr title="Domain Name System">DNS</abbr> servers is the least expensive.
	While I had been considering buying a domain that did not come with <abbr title="Domain Name System">DNS</abbr> servers just for others to use via afraid.org, I might instead grab another <code>//st.</code> domain for this purpose instead if I decide to set up a public domain.
	It&apos;s kind of ironic, seeing as I originally thought that the <code>//st.</code> registry was one of the more expensive ones.
	Its prices certainly don&apos;t compare to that of the most common <abbr title="generic top-level domain">gTLD</abbr>s or the <abbr title="country code top-level domain">ccTLD</abbr> of my home country, but its prices are the lowest of the <abbr title="Top Level Domain">TLD</abbr>s I would recommend to people.
</p>
<p>
	Previously, I had been recommending setting the telephone number string to &quot;no telephone service&quot; or the like when dealing with <abbr title="country code top-level domain">ccTLD</abbr>s that absolutely require that the field be filled but no not require the field to be numeric, but I&apos;ve come up with a few better ideas.
	For starters, you could put your email address there, or to show that it is an email address and not a <abbr title="Session Initiation Protocol">SIP</abbr> address, you could enter &quot;mailto:{your email address}&quot;.
	Of course, if you actually have a <abbr title="Session Initiation Protocol">SIP</abbr> address, you could put &quot;sip:{your <abbr title="Session Initiation Protocol">SIP</abbr> address}&quot; to make it known that you receive voice communications vis <abbr title="Session Initiation Protocol">SIP</abbr>.
	Though if you go with the email address option, it seems kind of silly to specify the same email address twice in your whois records, so you could set the telephone number string to &quot;please use email&quot;.
</p>
<p>
	My <a href="/a/canary.txt">canary</a> still sings the tune of freedom and transparency.
</p>
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